Tag: Erin Bednarz

ACME

April 28 through May 20, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm.
Preview on Thursday, April 27, and Industry night on Monday, May 8 at 7:30pm.
$20 general/$12 TPS, senior, military/$5 students. All Thursdays Pay-What-You-Can

Chaos reigns in this ensemble satire about the trappings of technology, brand-allegiance, and science-gone-amok! Jules (Nabilah Ahmed, Waning), an MIT dropout with a chip on her shoulder, has just arrived for her first day of a lucrative internship at ACME: world-famous manufacturer of all things necessary. With every new face she meets, Jules falls deeper into the machinations of ACME and its peculiar past. Undeterred, Jules charges headfirst into the weird unknown. The question is: will she survive long enough to see day two?

Written by Andrew Shanks – 2017 Winner, Ghost Light Theatricals Battle of the Bards – ACME is a takedown of corporate innovation at its worst and weirdest. Shanks stretches theatrical limits just as the researchers inside the company’s walls stretch the boundaries of reality.

Directed by Mary Hubert, who led the ensemble that devised Girl for Annex, ACME is at once a broad spectacle and a dark mystery, touring unexpected locales as Jules quests for answers and dodges dangerous upgrades.

“Andrew has constructed a brilliant, sharply witty satire of corporate life that is more timely than ever with the changes that have been wrought upon Seattle in recent years. Plus, the amount of theatre magic, science, laugh-out-loud moments, and impossible circumstances make this one hell of a fun play to helm! I feel so incredibly lucky to work with such a dynamite ensemble and production team on ACME. This show presents a host of unique challenges – changing locations more than 10 times and characters that transcend the plane of realism entirely – and this team has risen to the challenge admirably.” – Mary Hubert, Director

When a drop of Mary’s blood falls down down down to the center of the Earth, something Evil and Ancient wakes up in the shadows, and now the horrors of the dark have a taste for her. Mary must go on an epic quest through the Nightmares Nine to make a potion to put The Slither back to sleep and save her soul from his gnashing teeth. Scary Mary and the Nightmares Nine is a hilarious and hallucinatory fairy tale that creeps, crawls, and catapults its way through the bizarre landscape of the imagination as Mary fights for her very life amidst the ever-encroaching darkness.

Think of the classic hero’s quest: a rousing call to adventure, legendary challenges and temptations, a road full of trials and perils, transformation, atonement, and an ultimate resolution. Think of Aladdin, The Princess Bride, or Star Wars. The difference here? The heroes are young women in modern-day Seattle, who must navigate a male-dominated world and fight their battles in a society that imposes constraints on their gender and generation. This devised ensemble adventure asks, what does it take to be a modern heroine?

A warren of abandoned bunnies in Woodland Park evolves into a dark religious cult in this gleefully unsettling tale of revenge, sacrifice, and the most transgressive love of all. A world premiere with original music, inspired by the classic Greek tragedy The Bacchae.

“‘Bunnies’… is one of the most imaginative, entertaining and surprisingly substantial new shows of the season… ‘Bunnies’ is fun and entertaining throughout, but it also has real substance and allows us to leave the theater both entertained and inspired. This show allows us to revisit a sacred temple that we have not returned to in a very long time, but that still earns its place of reverence in our modern world. It’s a great achievement.” – Seattle Actor

“Keiko Green hits this one out of the park. The musical is engaging from start to finish, taking twists and turns and challenging audience members to reflect on how they interact with the natural world. Kudos to Annex for producing a new work with a powerhouse female ensemble. Simply put, this show doesn’t have a weak link. The script, music, choreography, design elements and performances converge to create a ferocious, furry musical infused with the macabre. You won’t want to miss this gem of a production!” – Copious Love

“Just when you think you’ve nailed down the tone of local playwright Keiko Green’s fractured fairy-tale musical ‘Bunnies,’ it takes a sharp left turn, hopping from baroque mythologizing to broad satire to shock-powered black comedy. It’s not quite Beatrix Potter on acid, but Green and director Pamala Mijatov’s stark vision of corrupted innocence is rarely less than intriguing.” – Seattle Times

The twelve year old president of the Lady Jean Ladies Horseback Riding Club will sacrifice anything or maybe everything to keep the club together. But her bubblegum-pink world cracks as the lives of the ladies beloved equines are threatened forcing them to question their loyalty to each other.

“This short, bitter, and bloody gallows comedy takes place in the pink and frilly bedroom of an imperious 12 year-old named Ashley who runs a club for ‘horse girls’—classmates who gather at Ashley’s home to ride her horses, conduct obsessively ritualistic meetings about those horses, and engage in the frighteningly hierarchical social rituals of pre-teen Americans… Playwright Jenny Rachel Weiner has a sharp ear for viciousness—when one character says she’s had a stressful day, the others swarm around to check her arms for slash marks—and Horse Girls could be the promising start to a gleefully devastating body of work.” – The Stranger

“Take ‘Mean Girls,’ add a pinch of ‘National Velvet,’ a dash of ‘Carrie.’ Stir briskly and you get Jenny Rachel Weiner’s ‘Horse Girls.’ A satire of pubescent female equestrians at their most insufferable, the raucous black comedy is like an extended ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit (featuring Gilda Radner or Amy Poehler) — with a macabre twist. Weiner… handily, hilariously nails a kind of peer and class pressure, and obsessive pony love, in this unbridled spoof… The youthful audience at a recent show howled throughout at the sharp mockery and teen nightmares… Weiner is a young humorist to keep an eye on.” – Seattle Times

“Directed by Norah Elges with the complete seriousness this snarky material deserves… A fantastic pink horsey bedroom set by Jenna Carino and costumes by Devon Allen, lights by Ryan Dunn and sound by Shane Regan combine to support the fun. If you have an evening free, try to see this. It’s a hoot.” – Miryam Gordon

“One of the delights of Annex Theater is their ‘off night’ productions, taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday nights; the current Off Nighter, Horse Girls by Jenny Rachel Weiner, is no exception…The director, Norah Elges assembled a strong cast…Horse Girls was only one hour…there is a snide song and dance number about an almost famous First Lady equestrian (not Jackie) which is not to be missed….you can grab a bite to eat in an un-crowded restaurant, have a good laugh during the middle of the week, to help you get through the week.” – Drama In The Hood